Victory Burger, a new venture from the good folks behind Actual Café on San Pablo Avenue, will open imminently, says Sal Bednarz, owner of both operations. How soon? Well, he wouldn’t be specific, but put it this way: burgers are cooking up on the grills already. “We will be open by the time you publish your story,” he told Berkeleyside Tuesday. (Given how quickly we go to press, we would advise readers to follow Victory Burger on Facebook for updates on its actual opening, however.)

The burger place, which is at 1099 Alcatraz Ave., next door to the Actual Café, will serve locally and sustainably farmed meat burgers, with artisan buns and organic produce, along with other sandwiches, crispy fries, and shakes.

Exterior table at Victory Burger. Photo: Victory Burger

Bednarz told Oakland North in May that his goal was to create a simple place where one could get a good-quality burger — something he said was lacking in this part of Oakland. “The good burgers, of which there a few, are almost all fine dining white tablecloth $15 burgers,” he said.

Bednarz raised $25,494 through a Kickstarter campaign earlier this year to fund the launch costs for Victory Burger, in particular for the construction of the interior and the wooden façade. The buiding used to be part of the bait and tackle shop that is now Actual Café and had been vacant for the past 20 years. A large exterior communal table in front of the restaurant makes up for the diminutive space inside. The restaurant passed its final building inspection on Nov. 13.

I was there on Saturday at around 2 pm but they were out of burger meat so I can’t report on the burgers! I had a banh mi with roast chicken and something called “chicken skin mayo” that was pretty tasty, and an order of fries with a very fresh home-made ketchup that was really, really excellent. Service was friendly (it was fairly slow) and super-apologetic about the inevitable bumps in the road that happened on Day 2 (like, a burger joint running out of burger meat). Menu is small but caters for various sorts of diners – beef burger, veggie burger, chicken banh mi, meat and vegetarian arepas (gluten free base … one of the burger options is on an arepa), some sides and add-ons. The veggie arepa that someone else had looked tasty. You can spilt a milkshake for a small charge which is going to be terrific for kids/lighter appetites. All in all I will be back – gotta try the burger and some of the other “specialty sauces” (avocado mayo and something they call bacon gravy) but I will probably avoid it when it’s raining because most of the seating is outside. I guess at slower times people will be able to go into Actual Cafe to sit down.